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Slowly but surely the Democrats are making government cleaner, more fuel-efficient and, of course, far, far less corrupt.

The sad thing is that many readers, I suspect, actually believe that.

The strange case of Norman Hsu brings this to the forefront. Hsu, unlike George Soros, has spent the last few years quietly raising big money for Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton in particular. Now we know Hsu had his reasons for avoiding the spotlight.

For the last 15 years, the state of California has held an outstanding warrant for Hsu. It seems that in 1991, Hsu pleaded no contest to charges that he basically bilked people out of more than $1 million in 1989.

California's attorney general caught up to him. Hsu cut a deal that allowed him to plead down to only one count of grand theft and, in return, he would spend three years in a California big house, presumably breaking big rocks into small rocks. However, Hsu took it on the lam. (I should've been a crime reporter.)

The Los Angeles Times brought this to light in a recent story headlined: "Democratic fundraiser is a fugitive in plain sight."

In the article, the deputy from the California AG's Office, who actually prosecuted Hsu said that Hsu is "a fugitive. Do you know where he is?"

Absolutely, pal. Why, there he is giving the Democrat's leading presidential candidate a big hug. The fact that for the last three years he's been living large in Democratic circles obviously doesn't say much for California state investigators. And, as he's personally delivered nearly $250,000 to various Democratic candidates since 2004, Hsu's gifts were clearly as unvetted as Jack Abramoff's.

More importantly, like Abramoff, Hsu bundles big money. Bundling is a fund-raising tool that allows individual donors to give their checks to Hsu, for instance, who in turn brings the "bundle" to the candidate.

According to a Wall Street Journal story, Hsu is a fund-raising artist, delivering an estimated $1 million to Clinton's campaign to date.

Impressive. If only he didn't have that petty con man thing hanging over his head.

Barack Obama's leading fund-raiser, Orin Kramer, actually praised Hsu in the Wall Street piece: "Norman's widely regarded as decent and enormously generous." Sure, Orin. The folks Hsu scammed out of a $1 million realize he's simply misunderstood.

This past Thursday, following the L.A. Times' story, Clinton's campaign announced it would donate all of the money Hsu raised to charity. The way campaign finance reporting goes today, we'll never know if that weak attempt at redemption was entirely fulfilled.

But the Hsu story, like the Harry Reid I-forgot-to-mention-I-made-a-cool-$1.5-million-on-a-little-land-deal-in-Vegas story, or the Nancy Pelosi nepotism-and-land-development-in-Northern-California-make-for-one-rich-family story, underscores how soft the alleged moral high ground genuinely is for the folks who piously vowed to restore honesty to government.